The bridge will close down the railway fhatak used by people to cross tracks between east and west side of Kalwa, which has led to a number of deaths in the past.

Kharegaon rail overbridge was proposed over a decade ago, but was delayed.(Praful Gangurde/HT Photo)

After a delay of almost 10 years, work on the Kharegaon rail overbridge (ROB) finally started last month.

The rail overbridge is slated to be completed by July this year. The bridge will close down the railway fhatak used by people to cross tracks between east and west side of Kalwa, which has led to a number of deaths in the past.

On the other hand, though the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has started preliminary ROB work, it has now proposed to appoint a consultant to design the ROB, a month after starting the work. The TMC’s proposal states that over Rs50 lakh will be spent on the consultant. The budget of the project is Rs27 crore.

The residents of Kalwa have to cross the track from this railway crossing owing to the lack of a bridge in this area.

On an average, 30 people die every year while crossing the tracks at the Kharegaon crossing. Vehicles, too, have to wait a long time to cross the railway line. The ROB was proposed over a decade ago, but was delayed owing to various reasons. The ROB is to be constructed by the railways and the TMC together. While the railways had completed work on the ROB in the section that falls in its jurisdiction, the TMC has only just begun the work.

A civic engineer requesting anonymity said, “The work on the ROB was supposed to start last year. However, we were awaiting the appointment of a consultant. Despite repeated tenders, we did not get any response. This delayed the work further. Finally, in October, we got response from three agencies and have now proposed to appoint one of them as a consultant.”

The corporation, however, did not wait for the consultation and has begun the work.

“We started the work almost a month ago, as we did not want to delay it further. We began the regular piling and foundation work at present and will take up the core work after the report of the consultant,” the engineer said.

“We do not have sufficient engineers to manage and design the entire project, so we have to appoint a consultant for the same. Once the consultant is finalised, we will be able to finish the bridge by July,” he added.